RFR: 8371960: Missing null check in AnnotatedType annotation accessor methods

[Alan Bateman]

On Sun, 16 Nov 2025 16:02:58 GMT, Chen Liang <liach at openjdk.org> wrote:

> `AnnotatedElement` methods specify they throw NPE if they take any null argument: `isAnnotationPresent`, `get(Declared)Annotation`, `get(Declared)AnnnotationsByType`. However, `AnnotatedType` has implementation quality issues that it does not throw NPE for `isAnnotationPresent` and `get(Declared)Annotation`.
> 
> This patch fixes this oversight by adding explicit null checks. For `get(Declared)AnnotationsByType`, even though it did throw exceptions, it was in the middle of parsing, so throwing it in the beginning is better.

I'm trying to judge the behavior/compatibility impact. Are there cases where NPE will be thrown for cases that is doesn't throw today? I get it that the parameter checking doesn't check it and instead the NPE comes from deep in the implementation, just want to understand if there is any impact of the change or not.

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PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/28341#issuecomment-3539020865